Page:John Nolen--New ideals in the planning of cities.djvu/112

NEW IDEALS IN THE PLANNING OF should be recognized, as Mr. Nelson P. Lewis, of the New York Board of Estimate and Apportionment, has well said, that where there is local benefit, there should be local assessment.

Other important subjects in connection with legislation and the raising of money for large public improvements are the legal limit of city indebtedness, borrowing on local assessments, and the place of self-supporting improvements in estimating a city's liabilities and their effect upon the debt limit.

The most valuable single book dealing with the subject of legislation has been issued by the Russell Sage Foundation. It is entitled "Carrying Out the City Plan," and gives the practical application of American law in the execution of city plans. The author is Flavel Shurtleff, and the work was done in collaboration with Frederick Law Olmsted. The book deals with public ownership of land, the acquisition of land, the distribution of the cost of land acquirement, excess condemnation, the use of the police power in the execution of a city plan, and the work of administrative agencies. The appendices give legislation and decisions, and extracts from a report on English and Continental systems of taking land for public purposes. The most concrete illustration of legal methods of carrying out city planning proposals has been prepared by Frank B. Williams in connection with the city plan for Bridgeport, Conn., issued in 1916.

Other references of special value are to be found in the report of Walter L. Fisher on "Legal Aspects of the Plan of Chicago," 1909, and Charles Mulford Robinson's volume on "City Planning," which contains five chapters on city planning legislation.